The Cochichewick River, also known as Cochichewick Brook, is a 1.6 miles (2.6 km) stream in North Andover, Massachusetts

North Andover, Massachusetts

North Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. North Andover is the home of Merrimack College, a private, Catholic four-year institution ....

, that drains water from Lake Cochichewick

Lake Cochichewick

Lake Cochichewick is a lake in North Andover, Massachusetts that collects water from Weir Hill and other local uplands. Its overflow drains into the Cochichewick River, which joins the Merrimack...

 into the Merrimack River

Merrimack River

The Merrimack River is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport...

.

Early history

The river's first Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an record dates from March 4, 1634-5, when "It is ordered that the land aboute Cochichowicke, shall be reserved for an inland plantacon

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

, & that whosoever will goe to inhabite there, shall have three yeares immunity from all tax

Tax

To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...

es, levyes, publique charges & services whatsoever, (military dissipline onely excepted), etc."

The Massachusetts Colony Records later note the sale of land thereabouts to the English:

At a general Court at Boston 6th of 3d month, 1646, Cutshamache, Sagamore of Massachusetts, came into the court and acknowledged that, for the sum of L6 and a coat which he had already received, he had sold to Mr. John Woodbridge, in behalf of the inhabitants of Cochichewick, now called Andover, all the right, interest and privilege in the land six miles southward from the town, two miles eastward to Rowley bounds, be the same more or less; northward to Merrimack river, provided that the Indian called Roger, and his company, may have liberty to take alewives

Alewife

The alewife is a species of herring. There are anadromous and landlocked forms. The landlocked form is also called a sawbelly or mooneye...

 in Cochichewick river for their own eating; but if they either spoil or steal any corn

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

 or other fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 to any considerable value of the inhabitants, the liberty of taking fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 shall forever cease, and the said Roger is still to enjoy four acres of ground where now he plants.

Settlement and early industry

Andover's first settlements were made about Cochichewick Brook, a "fair springe of sweet water." By 1835, North Andover had two textile mill districts (Sutton Mills and Stevens Mills) on the river. In the 18th and 19th centuries, milldam

Milldam

A milldam is a dam constructed on a waterway to create a mill pond.Water passing through a dam's spillway is used to turn a water wheel and provide energy to the many varieties of watermill...

s were built along the brook to power lumber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

- and gristmill

Gristmill

The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

s, creating Stevens Pond. The Weir Hill

Weir Hill

Weir Hill Reservation is a park located in the town of North Andover, Massachusetts. The Trustees of Reservations owns and maintains the property, however it is open to public use.-History:...

 reservation, now owned by The Trustees of Reservations

The Trustees of Reservations

The Trustees of Reservations is a non-profit land conservation and historic preservation organization dedicated to preserving natural and historical places in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the oldest regional land trust in the world and has 100,000 dues-paying members...

, was originally the Stevens country estate above Lake Cochichewick and Stevens Pond.